Genetologic Research

Jim Reinders
Carhenge, 1987

“Carhenge, which replicates Stonehenge, consists of the circle of cars, 3 standing trilithons within the circle, the heel stone, slaughter stone, and 2 station stones, and the Aubrey circle….

The artist of this unique car sculpture, Jim Reinders, experimented with unusual and interesting artistic creations throughout his life. While living in England, he had the opportunity to study the design and purpose of Stonehenge. His desire to copy Stonehenge in physical size and placement came to fruition in the summer of 1987 with the help of many family members.

Thirty-eight automobiles were placed to assume the same proportions as Stonehenge with the circle measuring approximately 96 feet in diameter. Some autos are held upright in pits five feet deep, trunk end down, while those cars which are placed to form the arches have been welded in place. All are covered with gray spray paint. The honor of depicting the heel stone goes to a 1962 Caddy.”

Adam Horowitz
Stonefridge, 1997

Atop the flat landscape on the edge of Santa Fe, among tumbleweeds and trash and the beauty of northern New Mexico’s skyline, “Stonefridge” catches your eye and confuses your mind like a mirage.

Refrigerators of all colors and shapes stand 18-feet high, lined up in a 100-foot diameter circle, facing inward toward a cluster of taller fridge towers. It’s as if the outer ring of fridges is worshipping these inner towers, or perhaps protecting them from the outside dangers.

Like Stonehenge, which is aligned to solar and lunar astronomical events, “Stonefridge” is geographically aligned to its own kind of power source: Los Alamos National Laboratories. Adam Horowitz, a critic of the atomic bomb, purposefully built the monument in a place where visitors can see the labs in the distance. He calls it an “atomic alignment.”

Kristin Posehn
Replicant, 2005/2006

description: A remake of a graffiti-covered supporting column from the M25 motorway/freeway, using photography and plywood. The exceptionally detailed tromp l’oeil photograph are mounted on a plywood structure, which shows through at top and bottom. A play on reality and illusion, process and reproduction, simulacra and materiality. A synthesis of sculpture, photography and installation. This work was a commission for the Keith Talent Gallery and Year_06. It was installed in the lovely Dicken’s Library of the Mary Ward House, Bloomsbury, London.

‘The physical construction of the work is the narrative; the movement required to view the work is the story and its unfolding. The structure of the work is a response to the journey that was its construction; it absorbs and reacts to all prior stages, such that the whole encompasses a larger time than any one moment. The passage through the work is interesting not in terms of a destination, but as a form for experience.’

more: Kristin Posehn
– blog
– research

Theo Jansen
Animaris Percipiere, 2004

Theo Jansen is an artist and kinetic sculptor living and working in Holland. He builds large works which resemble skeletons of animals which are able to walk using the wind on the beaches of the Netherlands. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering. In a BMW television commercial, Jansen says “The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds.”

Jansen is dedicated to creating artificial life through the use of genetic algorithms. These programs simulate evolution inside their code. Genetic algorithms can be modified to solve a variety of problems including circuit design, and in the case of Theo Jansen’s creations, complex systems. Some measure of “fitness” is introduced into the algorithm; in Theo’s case it is to survive on the beach while moving around within two enclosing lines on the wet sand near the ocean, and the dry sand at the edge of the beach. Those designs best at the assigned task within the modeled beach environment are bred together and graded again. Over time complex designs emerge which sprout wings and flap in the breeze pressurizing what look like plastic 2 liter soda bottles. Articulated legs sprout and scuttle across the sand like those of a crab. Theo uses plastic electrical conduit to make some of the computer’s most promising designs. He then lets them roam free on the beach, measures their success, and updates his model.

Watch them move on video

Interview with Theo Jansen

Vija Celmins
To Fix the Image in Memory (1977-82)

To Fix the Image in Memory places eleven small stones and their duplicates, made of painted cast bronze, onto a surface, challenging the viewer to decipher the real from the manmade and to question the relevance of the distinctions between real object and copy, nature and art. Culled from the area around the Rio Grande near Taos, New Mexico, where Celmins went to recover from the breakup of a romance in 1977, the stones have a magical, talismanic quality. They are all different shapes, colors and textures, ranging from the craggy to the phallic to the fecal, with interesting markings and lines on each.

“I got the idea for this piece while walking in northern New Mexico picking up rocks, as people do. I’d bring them home and I kept the good ones. I noticed that I kept a lot that had galaxies on them. I carried them around in the trunk of my car. I put them on window sills. I lined them up. And, finally, they formed a set, a kind of constellation. I developed this desire to try and put them into an art context. Sort of mocking art in a way, but also to affirm the act of making: the act of looking and making as a primal act of art.” By having each original rock installed with its duplicate, Celmins invites the viewer to examine them closely: “Part of the experience of exhibiting them together with the real stones,” she has said, “was to create a challenge for your eyes. I wanted your eyes to open wider.”

Guy Rombouts

A = Angular
B = Barred
C = Curve
D = Deviation
E = Elbow
F = Fluctuation
G = Grooves
H = Hairpin
I = Inlet
J = Jimmy
K = Key pattern
L = Lancet
M = Meander
N = Node
O = Ogee
P = Peristaltic
Q = Quadrangula
R = Rhombic
S = Snake-like
T = Tortuous
U = Uneven
V = Vault
W = Wavy
X = X-axis
Y = Y-axis
Z = Zigzag
and White

Former printer-typographer and visual artist Guy Rombouts (1949) has strong feelings about the relationship between form and content in language. He believes the conventional symbols of the written word are purely arbitrary and inadequate for expressing certain ideas and feelings.

Rombouts’ fascination with this “inadequacy” has led him to develop his own “more expressive” system of written language. He has taken the 26 letters of the alphabet and created replacements with new shapes. For instance, an angular line stands for A, a curve for C. a zigzag for Z, etc. By combining these lines into word-polygons, Rombouts has created a writing system that makes language look like a continuous flow and, he claims, gives it “another, new reality.”

“Romboutese” is the artist’s own pictorial language, whose applications he claims to be boundless. He has extended the alphabet’s visual aspect by providing each of the 26 lines with its own color (aquamarine, Bordeaux red. etc.) and matching noise (aha, brrbrr, sshssh, kdoink, etc.) so that Romboutese can be appreciated aurally as well as orally.

A choice is always a limitation
Interview (dutch) with Guy Rombouts by Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau
published in De Witte Raaf, september 2006
Read the rest of this entry »

– a short story-

by Maarten Vanden Eynde, 2006/2007
in collaboration with Marjolijn Dijkman

A billion stars twinkled in the universe, irregularly like diamonds. I woke up in a sweat and tried to christalize where I was. The heavy window screens were open but I could only feel a pitch-black sky. I rolled over to the side and found my glasses. There, up there on the left, it should be there! Was I still sleeping? I blinked my eyes a couple of times, but was disappointed again. It was gone, it was really gone…

The loss of gravitation first came to general notice on the 15th of June 2008, during the Olympics in Beijing, China. On that day 27 world records were broken. Read the rest of this entry »

Maarten Vanden Eynde
Nice Indians, 2007

Most of the ‘Native Americans’ are situated in the state of California, 627.562 to be precise. More than twice as much as in number two, Arizona. It’s the last refuge corner of the United States, the bottleneck towards South America. While driving through the Grand Canyon you are confronted with many native Indian shops next to the road. In the most desolate environment they sell original Indian jewelry and other souvenirs to passing tourists. They usually make themselves noticed by putting hand painted signs NICE INDIANS AHEAD fifty meters before the little store, followed by NICE INDIANS when you pass the store and about another fifty meters further they remind you or call you back by saying NICE INDIANS BEHIND! TURN AROUND…
In a way, this sums up the whole history of the United States, starting from Columbus to the present day. From the day the Europeans went to America (NICE INDIANS AHEAD), followed by the period in which ground was traded for pearl necklaces and new cities were build (NICE INDIANS), up to the present day where the tourist industry is profiting from the ancient wild west image and mass producing genuine Indian props (NICE INDIANS BEHIND). I want to copy/paste this time line into the contemporary topography of LA by replacing the signs into the city of Los Angeles.

Location:

Interstate 5 (abbreviated I-5) is the westernmost interstate highway in the continental United States. Its odd number indicates that it is a north-south highway. Its southern terminus is at the international border between the United States and Mexico in the San Diego community of San Ysidro, California. Its northern terminus is at the international border between the United States and Canada at the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington. An extensive section of this highway (over 600 miles or 965 km), from approximately Stockton, California to Vancouver, Washington, follows very closely the track of the Siskiyou Trail. The Siskiyou Trail was based on an ancient network of Native American footpaths connecting the Pacific Northwest with California’s Central Valley. By the 1820s, trappers from the Hudson’s Bay Company were the first non-Native Americans to use the route of today’s I-5 to move between today’s Washington State and California. During the second half of the 19th Century, mule trains, stagecoaches, and the Central Pacific railroad also followed the route of the Siskiyou Trail. It runs straight through Los Angeles which makes it the perfect road to place the time line.
The signs have to bridge the highway, so by driving on the Interstate 5 in the city you will pass through time and be confronted with the unspoken and forgotten reality of colonial history. NICE INDIANS AHEAD – NICE INDIANS – NICE INDIANS BEHIND.

Brian Jungen
Cetology, 2002

Brian Jungen (b. British Columbia, Canada, 1970) is part of a generation of Vancouver-based artists currently bursting onto the international stage. Born to a Swiss-Canadian father and First Nations mother and raised in the Dane-zaa nation, his drawings, sculptures and installations explore elements of his own hybrid cultural identity. Yet, his approach transcends questions of ethnicity to explore the complex exchanges of goods and ideas in our globalized world.

Jungen’s reputation was secured by his magnificent whale ‘skeletons’, large suspended sculptures made from cheap plastic deckchairs. His rendering of rare and endangered whale species in non-biodegradable mass-produced objects also refers to current debates about whaling practices in Canada. Representing the postmodern, postcolonial world with a wry sense of humor, Jungen collapses stereotypes and embraces change, flux and instability. Offering new ways of thinking about multiculturalism at a time when the famous model of Dutch ‘tolerance’ is under close scrutiny, his practice approaches cultural difference as an unstable, reciprocal notion, using it as a starting point for creativity and critical reflection.

Study for the Evening Redness in the West (detail), 2006

Paul McCarthy and Raivo Puusemp
Burial, 2006

Paul McCarthy, curating and working on a concept developed by Raivo Puusemp, buried a favorite sculpture of his own making on the grounds of the Naturalis. The resulting work, Burial, reverses the process of unearthing practiced by paleontologists and archaeologists. McCarthy’s with Puusemp’s work was performed on the day of the exhibition opening and documented on film for display in the exhibition. The buried sculpture resides underground as an artifact for future discovery.

The event, if we consider it in reverse, raises a number of questions for natural history museums. While specimens and objects are still buried, do they really exist? Before they’re dug up, do they have any value? When they are recovered, can some sort of price be placed on them?

Jelte van Abbema
Symbiose, 2006

Printed media can create a harmful impact to the environment. Solutions like soy ink and natural pigments are a better alternative, but Jelte van Abbema takes this approach even further. His fascination for nature allows him to investigate the possibilities of bacteria in a visual culture. To stay within scientific guidelines, he completed a course at the department of microbiology at the University of Wageningen. The result is a radical concept within printed media in that the image is still materializing when it rolls off the press. By converting a bus stop poster box (manufactured by JCDecaux) with controlled conditions, van Abbema creates an environment for his print to thrive. With time, the bacteria transform and begin to shape their own aesthetics and dimensions by growing over their printed boundaries.

davidkremers
paraxial mesoderm, 1992

agar, x-gal, iptg, neutral red n-2880, ecoli tb-1, synthetic resin on acrylic plate
24 x 24 inches

©davidkremers1992

abstract

given evolution as a step of physiology based intelligence.
method paintings are grown on plates of clear acrylic using bacteria genetically engineered to produce enzymes of various colors after maturation, the plates are dried and sealed in a synthetic resin the figurative subjects are chosen from embryonic structures common to all mammals.
q e d life is organization rather than substance. consciousness is inherent in the way molecules are organized, not in the substance of the molecules themselves.

visceral arch, 1992
gesso, eosin y, agar, x-gal, iptg, ecoli tb-1, plasmid, alizarin red-s, synthetic resin on acrylic plate
24 x 24 inches

©davidkremers1992

‘in 1992 i began growing paintings from bacteria on plates of clear acrylic, using bacteria that was genetically engineered to produce enzymes of various colors. itís like painting on a piece of ice with melted snow. after eighteen hours in an incubation chamber the image grows into the shapes and colors the bacteria and i have collaborated on. the plates are then dried and sealed in a synthetic resin. future conservators, a millenium away, may remove the resin, feed the bacteria, and continue the life of the work. the figurative subjects were chosen from early embryonic structures common to all mammals. evolution as a step of physiology-based intelligence’.

Maarten Vanden Eynde

Genetologic Research Nr. 25: Ore Crystal, 2006
60cm x 80cm x 160cm

An ore is a volume of rock containing components or minerals in a mode of occurrence which renders it valuable for mining.
Rare samples of ore in the form of exceptionally beautiful crystals, exotic layering (when sectioned or polished) or metallic presentations such as large nuggets or chrystaline formations of metals such as gold or copper may command a value far beyond their value as mere ore or raw metal for subsequent reduction to utilitarian purposes.The grade or contained concentration of an ore mineral, or metal, as well as its form of occurrence, will directly affect the costs associated with mining the ore. The cost of extraction must thus be weighted against the contained metal value of the rock and a ‘cut-off grade’ used to define what is ore and what is waste.
Ore minerals are generally oxides, sulfides, silicates, or “native” metals (such as copper) that are not commonly concentrated in the Earth’s crust or “noble” metals (not usually forming compounds) such as gold. The ores must be processed to extract the metals of interest from the waste rock and from the ore minerals.
Ore bodies are formed by a variety of geological processes. The process of ore formation is called ore genesis.

The various theories of ore genesis explain how the various types of mineral deposits form within the Earth’s crust. Ore genesis theories generally involve three components: source, transport or conduit, and trap. This also applies to the petroleum industry, which was first to use this methodology.
Source is required because metal must come from somewhere, and be liberated by some process.
Transport is required first to move the metal bearing fluids or solid minerals into the right position, and refers to the act of physically moving the metal, as well as chemical or physical phenomenon which encourage movement.
Trapping is required to concentrate the metal via some physical, chemical or geological mechanism into a concentration which forms mineable ore.
The biggest deposits are formed when the source is large, the transport mechanism is efficient, and the trap is active and ready at the right time.

Maarten Vanden Eynde

Genetologic Research Nr. 28, 2006
50cm x 50cm x 15cm

Maarten Vanden Eynde

Taxonomic Trophies, 2005/2006

In hunting, trophies can be awarded as part of a competition, although a class of trophies specific to hunting also exists. These trophies are obtained from the bodies of game animals. Often the heads or entire bodies are processed by a taxidermist, although sometimes other body parts such as teeth or horns are used as trophies. Hunting for the singular purpose of obtaining trophies is often considered improper today. Such trophies have also been produced from humans in cultures that accept cannibalism or when two societies clash in war.
Commencing in the 1970s and 1980s in the United Kingdom, USA and some other western countries, a pejorative association began to be assumed regarding the process of hunting for trophies. By the year 2000 there is widespread consensus in animal welfare organizations and in segments of the population as a whole that trophy hunting is to be discouraged. Many of the 189 countries signtory to the 1992 Rio Accord have developed Biodiversity Action Plans that discourage the hunting of protected species.
A Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is an internationally recognized programme addressing threatened species and habitats, which is designed to protect and restore biological systems. The original impetus for these plans derives from the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). As of 2006, 188 countries have ratified the CBD, but only a fraction of these have developed substantive BAP documents.
The principal elements of a BAP include:
1. preparing inventories of biological information for selected species or habitats;
2. assessing the conservation status of species within specified ecosystems;
3. creation of targets for conservation and restoration.

Maarten Vanden Eynde

Taxonomic Trophies; Death Valley, USA 2006

Definitions:

Taxonomic species = Taxonomic species are morphologically and otherwise classified groups of organisms that taxonomists determine to belong to a specific group (Gaston 1996). This is a more traditional definition of “species”.

Trophic species = Trophic species are functional groups that contain organisms that appear to eat and be eaten by the exact same species within a food web (Cohen and Briand 1984). In other words, one or more species that eat entirely the same set of prey and are eaten by an entirely identical set of predators are considered one single trophic species.

A trophic species and a taxonomic species are identical when the trophic species contains only one taxon.

Taxonomy (from Greek verb τασσεῖν or tassein = “to classify” and νόμος or nomos = law, science, cf “economy”) was once only the science of classifying living organisms (alpha taxonomy), but later the word was applied in a wider sense, and may also refer to either a classification of things, or the principles underlying the classification. Almost anything, animate objects, inanimate objects, places, and events, may be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.

Roxy Paine

Bluff, 2002

Bluff was sited just east of the Sheep Meadow along The Mall (mid-park at 67th Street) at Central Park New York.
It is a fifty-foot high tree made of brilliantly reflective stainless steel. Bluff’s heavy industrial plates formed a two-foot-wide trunk that supported more than 5000 pounds of cantilevered branches, welded together from 24 different diameters of steel pipes and rods. Its gleaming frame remained unchanged as its environment shifted from winter into spring. By announcing its grand manmade artifice rather than attempting to blend in with the surrounding real plants and trees, Bluff was a cunning reminder that Central Park is itself an artificial sanctuary, a product of city planners as much as Mother Nature.

LA tree, 2005

‘Life is found in animals and plants; but while in animals it is clearly manifest, in plants it is hidden and not evident. For before we can assert the presence of life in plants, a long inquiry must be held as to whether plants possess a soul and a distinguishing capacity for pleasure and pain.’ -Aristotle, On Plants.